Whatever the reason, British actor Mark Strong has a history of being tapped to play baddies —
from murderous aristocrat Lord Blackwood in
Sherlock Holmes to scheming antagonist Godfrey in
Robin Hood.

The actor, who just turned 50, is portraying a more complicated character these days: anguished
Detroit cop Frank Agnew on the recently unveiled AMC series
Low Winter Sun.

Strong knows the role well: He also played Agnew in the 2006 British miniseries on which the
drama is based.

Q: Besides the accent, is there anything different about the character in this version of Low
Winter Sun?

A: It’s a very difficult question to answer, actually — and, of course, it’s the most obvious
one to ask. I’ve been trying to rack my brain forever to work out what the differences are. I mean,
I look the same in both, albeit eight years older. And one character was Scottish and one was
American, so they sound different. But I suppose the drive, the impetus, is me — so, in a way, they
are the same.

Q: How were you cast to play the same part?

A: I think (show runner) Chris Mundy was looking for somebody who could play “the Mark Strong
part” until somebody said, “Have you asked him?” and he said, “No.”

Susie (Fitzgerald), who’s the creative head at AMC, said, “Oh, he makes movies; we’re never
going to get him.” And somebody said, “Well, just ask him.”

And, of course, when they did, I was well up for it because, funny enough, I’d been talking
about various other TV shows, all of which I’d said no (to) because I didn’t want to leave home.
But because I’d started the process of thinking what it would mean to go away from home for four to
five months and whether I was amenable to that, what it would mean to sign up for a project that
could potentially last for five or six years, . . . the fact that it was a part that I did before,
that I wanted to take further — and I didn’t want anyone else to play him, either — meant that the
decision was easy.

Q: With so many British actors on U.S. television, most of them are playing Americans — such as
your co-star Lennie James, Damian Lewis on Homeland, Hugh Dancy on Hannibal and Andrew Lincoln on
The Walking Dead. Why?

A: My theory is twofold. There’s what TV has become — which is different from what it was 10
years ago. There’s this theory that the studios are just doing these big tent-pole movies for
hundreds of millions of dollars and all the interesting little indie movies now don’t exist, so all
those writers have gone to TV. That’s why I think British actors are happy to do it — because the
quality of the writing is so good and the potential for character development is so great.

We (British actors) have training — which means we know our lines; we hit our marks in an
environment where you have to work fast and you can’t muck about. American actors are just as good,
but the perception of the training of British actors lends itself to this process.